The next few hours were chaotic but seemed a relief to the madness they had all just endured.
Tony in his National Parks vehicle had been first on the scene with blankets and hot coffee for everyone and the ambulance had shown up minutes later. Nashy had been their first patient. Stabilising him and taking both him and Jake off to Tamworth Base Hospital. Matt had come around and had suffered some head trauma. His main gripe was the handcuffs which would not be able to be removed until another police vehicle turned up.
Tony had retrieved Sarge from the waterfall washed ledge and carried her up to the back tray of his car. Wrapping her in blankets, before doing his best to patch up the wound on her leg.
Once he was confident there was nothing else that he could do to assist at the top of the falls, Tony grabbed a torch and coil of rope from the back of his vehicle and began the difficult but not impossible climb down to the base of the falls. He found Paul, a broken and tangled mess pushed up against a boulder, his head in the water and his neck twisted like a pretzel. Dead. It was just after lunchtime the following day that his body was finally retrieved from its final resting place.
When the police had arrived, they immediately began to arrest Matt. With a dead cop and a man in handcuffs, he was their obvious target but as he was bundled into the back of another car he called to Rebecca.
“Don’t let them take the dashcam until you’ve copied it. I set it up to record before you got here…Sorry, but I just wasn’t sure how this would all go…and…well…” Rebecca had followed his whispered instructions and handed the SD card off to Tony.
Rebecca spent the next hours giving statements, taken to hospital, and checked by medical staff and finally being released the next morning.
Jake had only bruised his ribs and had two stitches in his scalp. Nashy had taken a bullet in his left shoulder and lost enough blood to ensure a prolonged stay in hospital. The complaints from that hospital room would be a never-ending string of curses and blasphemies all revolving around being unable to smoke.
By later that day Tony had copied the memory card from the dashcam and handed the original into the police. By late afternoon Matt walked out of the Police station a free man.
After the long night and day, the only thing Rebecca wanted to do now was go home. She collected Jake but before leaving she checked in on Craig. Nurses told her that he was doing well and would be released late next week if all went well. She peeked inside his room to find him sleeping, a thin line of dribble running down his chin. She sighed, feeling envious of his ability to doze, but she was mindful that Craigs sleep was drug induced.
“Gotta get me some of them drugs.” She muttered.
A voice behind her made her jump. “You've just got to know the right people.”
Rebecca turned to find Craig’s sister, Tania standing behind her.
“How’s he doing?”
“He’s going to be fine, but more importantly, how are you? The whole thing last night…well you know how gossip is.”
“I haven’t really had time to stop yet. My head is still racing, and my anxiety, even though I think I deserve a medal for keeping it under control, I can feel it bubbling just below the surface.”
“Ok. Wait right here. I’ll get one of the doctors to prescribe you something.” Tania headed off down the hallway and was only gone a minute before she came back with an older man in tow.
“Rebecca. This is Doctor Cooper.”
After a few pleasantries and some personal details, Rebecca was off to the local pharmacy and on her way home, with Jake in the seat beside her.
“What a night sis. I can’t get my head around it. Grandad didn’t like him you know, but I think that was just a cop thing.”
“Oh shit. We need to ring them as soon as we get home...but first we need to make a stop.”
“I like the way that sounds. Home. I reckon I should move up here too.”
Rebecca was about to chastise Jake about school but hesitated before she finally spoke.
“You know what. That’s probably the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say and Nashy is going to need help at the mill.”
After a few minutes she parked the car and climbed out.
“Umm…sis. This is…”
“I know. I’ll just be a minute.”
It was closer to ten minutes before Rebecca returned to the car. The house whose driveway they had parked looked cold and grey in the afternoon light. Jake remembered it well. He remembered Aunty Meg and the swimming pool, and he remembered the man he had called Uncle Paul, and it nearly brought a tear to his eye. He snapped back when Rebecca came out through the front door with a ball of white fur. It growled and snapped at Jake as Rebecca opened the passenger door but instantly began to whimper and lick Jakes face as soon as the dog was placed into his lap.
“Jake. Meet Peaches. She’s ours now.”
“We got TWO dogs?”
“Yeah…and right now we have to go check on the other one.”
The drive was filled with the distraction that was Peaches. For just a short period they forgot what they had just been through.
Sarge was recuperating at Tracey’s house and that was where they headed next. Tony had refused to let the dog out of his sight and Sarge had shown the same feelings. That was quick to change when Rebecca and Jake drove down the driveway of Tracey’s studio unit. They did not even have time to get out of the car before they were met by Tracey, Tony and even Tracey’s mum. Words were useless, and the only thing they could do was hug each other.
“Ok. Everybody inside out of this cold.” Mrs Pearce waved her hands, ushering the hugging indoors.
‘I just want to get home and sleep. We only came to pick up Sarge. How’s she doing?”
Tony moved over to Sarge who was curled up on a blanket. “She’s tough. Took a bullet through her left front leg and pulled a couple of nails when she went over that drop, but…yeah…she’s doing good. Vet says she just needs rest.”
“Well, I’m going to make sure she gets plenty of that. After what she did for me…” Rebecca felt her voice break and then a hand on her shoulder.
“Sis. We got to introduce her to her new sister. No time for blubbering now.” Jake had Peaches cradled in his arms, and he knelt beside Sarge and let the two dogs get familiar. After a few muted yaps and a lot of sniffing, Peaches curled up beside Sarge and fell asleep.
“Now you two aren’t going anywhere. I got dinner cooked for you and Tony’s going to shoot up to your place and get that fire going. I won’t have you going home to a cold house.”
Tony just stood and nodded at Mrs Pearce’s instructions before realising he was being told to go start the fire at Rebecca's.
Within minutes Mrs Pearce had Rebecca, Jake and Tracey seated around the small table and was ladling vegetable and beef soup into bowls in front of them, with a plate of sliced, warm damper.
Rebecca’s eyes lit up, and she poked Jake in the arm. “We don’t have a bed for you at home yet.”
“Oh yes we do. Nashy brought it over just after you left last night. Took us a while to get it down the hallway, but his swearing seemed to help it along, and he brought a mattress and a load of blankets too.”
Rebecca dropped her head, thoughts drifting back to the events of last night.
“Sis. He’s okay. You know when we were dragging that mattress into the room is when his phone went off. Heard you and that Matt guy and a bloody scream. I’d already told him you went off to The Pane to meet him. He told me to stay put but…well I was going too, mainly ‘cause I had no way of getting there and then I remembered the Ute. Guess that’s stuffed now. I didn’t even check it.”
“You’ll fix it. However bad it is. You’re good with your hands…just like dad…and I reckon Nashy will help.”
“Yeah, I reckon your right.”
After the meal and all the attention, they could handle, Rebecca and Jake headed home. Sarge and Peaches on a pile of old blankets in the back of the car.
Tony was still there when they turned up, and they carried Sarge inside and placed her in front of the fire before Tony left them.
When all was done, they sat and watched the fire with steaming coffees in hand, while Peaches went about exploring her new home. Sarge slept.
“We need to ring Grandma and Grandad.” Rebecca stood and picked up the old land line.
“Yeah, I know. I reckon they’ll be here first thing in the morning once they know what went on. Guaranteed.”
Rebecca drew a deep breath. “I sure hope so.”